Potomac Books Inc imprint: 299 books

In 1806, when retired sea captain and religious activist Christopher Prince (1751-1832) began to write his lifes story, he wanted simply to leave his family a record of his experiences. Today, his autobiography survives as one of the extremely rare participants accounts of seafaring during the American...

Civilians and military personnel do not have a clear view of each other in the United States today. Conspiring against such understanding are the norms and traditions of the two cultures. On the one hand, the military is considered to like its secrecy and think of itself as morally superior to the civilians...

The conflict in Iraq is characterized by three faces of war: interstate conflict, civil war, and insurgency. The Coalitions invasion of Iraq in March 2003 began as an interstate war. No sooner had Saddam Hussein been successfully deposed, however, than U.S.-led forces faced a lethal insurgency. After...

In the wake of Californias energy crisis, policymakers rush to satisfy growing demand requirements may run the risk of naively ignoring the larger issues and dangers associated with increased reliance on nuclear power. A connection between national nuclear power programs and nuclear proliferation can...

Haunted Victory: The American Crusade to Destroy Saddam and Impose Democracy on Iraq explores the dynamic trajectory of beliefs, actions, and their consequences in what will forever be debated as among the most controversial and costly operations in U.S. history in terms of security, power, wealth, and...

The Jeffersonian Vision, 1801–1815 reveals how the nation's leaders understood and asserted power during those crucial years between Thomas Jefferson's inauguration as the third president and the firing of the last shots at the battle of New Orleans. Seeking to overcome the bitter political animosities...

Help! I'm a Military Spouse is not a book about being the perfect military spouse. And it's not about rebelling against military life. It's about creatively taking advantage of the military life's opportunities to fulfill one's own dreams. Military lifestyle columnists, workshop presenters and longtime...

Russia is a post-communist country struggling to adapt to the modern world economically and politically. In the twenty-first century, Russia faces postmodern social, cultural, and political problems with its old policy of deterrence. For RussiaÆs political leaders and military planners, three scenarios...

SECDEF offers an expertÆs insights into one of the most difficult jobs in Washington. Of the twenty-one men who have held the post of secretary of defense since it was created in 1947, only half served more than eighteen months. The first, James Forrestal, committed suicide soon after leaving the Pentagon....

On April 14, 1994, on a clear morning over northern Iraq's no-fly zone, two U.S. Air Force F-15 jets encountered two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters on a routine mission. Within ten minutes, the F-15s misidentified the helicopters and shot them down with fire-and-forget missiles. For three years, aircraft...

Donald L. Canneys study is the first book-length history of the U.S. Navys Africa Squadron. Established in 1842 to enforce the ban on importing slaves to the United States, in twenty years time the squadron proved ineffective. To officers and enlisted men alike, duty in the squadron was unpopular. The...

The United States, argues Michael A. Palmer, is engaged in a political crusade to modernize the Islamic world. Americanism is in the vanguard of modernityÆs relentless advance, promoting capitalist markets and democratic institutions. To compete, Islamic societies must adopt a more secular and material...

Dismissed from the U.S. Naval Academy in early 1861, William Barker Cushing nonetheless emerged from the Civil War as one of the NavyÆs greatest heroes. Cushing transformed his reputation from a rabblerouser into a living legend, because he embodied the special qualities that the Navy demands of the...

Imagine what it would be like to talk and fly with the men who flew the airplanes of World War II. What was in their minds as they made their first solos? And what was air combat like? Flying Through Time is the closest many of us will come to understanding what it was like to be a WWII aviator.Tens...